Perhaps I'm offending you,
Mr. Banneker."
"You're interesting me. But, 'among ourselves' you say. You're not a
newspaper man; you haven't the traditions."
"Therefore I haven't the blind spots. I'm not fooled by the
sentimentalism of the profession or the sniveling claims of being an
apostle of public enlightenment. If enlightenment pays, all very well.
But it's circulation, not illumination, that's the prime desideratum.
Frankly, I'd feed the public gut with all it can and will stand."
"Even to the extent of keeping the Tallman divorce scandal on the front
page for a week consecutively. You won't pretend that, as news, it's
worth it."
"Give me a definition of news," retorted the expert. "The Tallman story
won't alter the history of the world. But it has its--well, its
specialized value for our purposes."
"You mean," said Banneker, deliberately stimulating his own growing
nausea, "that it makes the public's mind itch."
"It's a pretty filthy and scabby sort of animal, the public, Mr.
Banneker. We're not trying to reform its morals in our news columns, I
take it."
"No. No; we're not. Still--"
"That's the province of your editorials," went on the apostle of
titillation smoothly. "You may in time even educate them up to a
standard of decency where they won't demand the sort of thing we're
giving them now.
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